The Edwards administration has presented state lawmakers with a proposed 30-billion dollar spending plan for next fiscal year that would give teachers a pay raise and increase funding for education and health care. But Commissioner of Administration Jay Dardenne says funding remains uncertain because an official forecast that shows increased revenues coming into the state has yet to be adopted.
“Unless and until the speaker is willing to recognize a forecast we can’t act on money that has not yet been recognized.”
State economists project higher tax collections than previously estimated, but Republican House Speaker Taylor Barras has blocked efforts to raise the income forecast. Barras says the economy is volatile and the Revenue Estimating Conference has been wrong before, so why not wait…
“The later we wait in the year the better we get, the margin of error gets smaller and smaller.”
But Dardenne says eventually state lawmakers will need an official forecast in order to make decisions on funding.
“And obviously the later in the year you wait, if you wait until the very end of the year you will know exactly how much money you had but we can’t do that.”
